Developer: SNK Publisher: Takara Released: July 31, 1992 Genre: Fighting
In 1991 the thought of owning a Neo Geo was preposterous. At $600 I would have had to rob a bank to afford the system, let alone the games. But the ridiculous price tag did little to sway my interest in owning its games. Luckily during the 16-bit era Takara published many a SNK classic to home consoles for those of us that were poor. These home ports were of varying quality, with Kings of the Monsters falling on the bad side of the spectrum. I don’t know what went wrong but King of the Monsters on SNES is a miserable experience from beginning to end.
It seems quaint now but King of the Monsters was the closest a video game came to recreating the city bashing destruction of a Godzilla movie. As one of six giant monster send ups you compete in a one on one fighting game in different cities around the world to see who is the strongest. The premise itself is sound but even in the arcade the game was frustrating. On the SNES and Genesis King of the Monsters becomes even worse. Stay the hell away from both versions of this game.
King of the Monsters is a one on one fighting starring giant monsters in sprawling cities. Rather than a single plane the game uses the entire city as your arena like a wrestling ring. There are boundaries that anyone crossing will get shocked. Since you are a hundred foot tall creature (or Dude) you can crush buildings and other attractions underfoot. The people don’t take kindly to all the destruction and will attack with helicopters and tanks although they are a minor nuisance. You can even use their arsenal to attack your opponent! Standard fighting game rules do not apply as even if you deplete your opponent’s life bar you still have to pin them for a three count to win. This is more aggravating than you can imagine but I will get to that.
The controls are relatively simple and there are a surprisingly large number of moves. Aside from basic punches and kicks initiating a grapple will allow you to perform a series of different throws and slams using simple button combinations. You can even perform dashing attacks and throw enemies against an imaginary tight rope in a wrestling match. The problem is outside of their charged projectile attacks every monster plays identically with the same move set. This is a huge blow to the game on top of its reduced roster although that ends up being a blessing in disguise.
Right away this is a stripped down version of the arcade game. Only four of the monsters have made the cut with Woo and Poison Ghost gone. Even though they play the same more choice is always welcome. Also missing are two of the cities, meaning you will fight in the same battleground multiple times, sometimes twice in a row. Because there are less characters the game’s progression has changed. In the arcade you fought all six monsters before the game pulled a Capcom and made you do it again with a higher difficulty. Mercifully this is shorter due to the reduced cast. But it is still just as brutal due to the game’s flaws.
The pieces are there but the execution is where King of the Monsters fails. The first thirty seconds of any match are enjoyable as you trade blows and toss monsters around willy nilly. But after the first few grapples it seems completely random who will win out. There is no way to influence this either and it almost always seems lean in the computer’s favor. This would not be a problem if the various throws and slams were not the quickest way to wearing them down. It gets old being slammed five times in a row and waiting for the entirely too long recovery animation. After the first match subsequent opponents gain longer life bars and are extremely aggressive. This is not the worst aspect of the game either.
To win you have to pin your opponent. However there is no limit to the number of times they can kick out. It isn’t out of the ordinary to see the AI kick out twelve times in a row despite having no health. Once again it is the luck of the draw as to when they will finally submit. Meanwhile if you are pinned three times it is over. It is totally unfair and makes an already aggravating game that much more frustrating. They don’t even restore your health between matches! The arcade design ruins this one.
In Closing
I want to like King of the Monsters. To some degree I do. But I can’t recommend it in good faith. At the very least it establishes a baseline for its much better sequel. Play that game instead.
